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Earthquake Türkiye and Syria | February 6, 2023

General Information

The project

The project aims to build homes for people who lost their houses after the earthquakes on February 6th, 2023. To ensure our design is research-based, we participated in numerous meetings, conferences, and presentations with experts worldwide, during the last year. 

In addition, we conducted three field trips where we connected with local municipalities, communities, voluntary projects, and universities, and carried out interviews. During these visits, we observed urban-rural displacement, long-term rebuilding efforts in villages, a lack of awareness, and concerns about current building practices. This is why our project focuses on long term affordable housing solutions, with the use of modular materials. 

Want to learn more? Watch our video or explore the three phases of our project.

Project Timeline

Phase 1 | Knowledge

In phase one, we focused mainly on gaining and sharing knowledge about architectural recovery and to design possible solutions under the guidance of experts and specialists from various disciplines. For this, we organised a workshop week from 20 – 24 March. 

The outcome of this workshop week were 60 students designing 12 concept designs, under the guidance of many lecturers, experts and firms.

Monday, February 6, 2023

Earthquakes Türkiye and Syria

Monday, February 6, 2023
February, 2023

Beginning of START

Seven students came together to see what they could do to help the earthquake affected victims.
February, 2023
March 20, 2023

Workshop Week | Syrian Turkish Architectural Recovery workshop week

March 20, 2023

Phase 2 | The Design

In phase two, we are working on the design. It’s essential to connect and align with many different stakeholder in order to fully understand the challenges they are facing. Especially the needs of local inhabitants should be taken into account when designing new homes. The design team is developing modular, long-term housing solutions by implementing local materials, flexibility and culture into the design. To validate this phase, a full scale prototype will be tested Delft University of Technology and later on build and tested in the Karsu village in Hatay. (In progress). In the below timeline, a glimpse of the past year is given, if you would like to know more about a specific event, feel free to get in touch with us!

May, 2023

Defining next steps for the Architectural Recovery Team & ARCELIK & Follow up drinks

May, 2023
June, 2023

Start Designing and Keep learning & Nomination student initiative of the year

June, 2023
July, 2023

Fieldtrip #1

During our first field trip, we visited various cities affected by the earthquake. We explored each location, spoke with families who lost their homes, and connected with local municipalities to determine how we could support the area. We also visited reference projects focused on short-term housing solutions and discussed how they initiated their efforts.
July, 2023
August, 2023

Defining problem statement & design concepts

August, 2023
September, 2023

University Presentations (Extreme & Core & Board of examinors) & Borusan Events & Branding agency Bray St. Workshops

September, 2023
October, 2023

Start Designing & Advise councils & First meetings with advise group of Municipality of Amsterdam & VNGI & Cultural Relations Program Madrid

October, 2023
November, 2023

Fieldtrip #2 & Design Reveal & BK LAUNCH award & Meetings Moroccan Team

During our second visit, our main focus lied on choosing a specific village, making all the connections with local stakeholders and viewing the different plots where our first prototype could be build.

November, 2023
December, 2023

Media | Jeroen Pauw documantary

A second aim of the fieldtrip in november was to participate in the documentary of NPO1, where Jeroen Pauw visited the affected area and to portray the horrible disaster that took place in the South of Turkiye. The documentary was broadcasted on the 11th of December, 2023.
December, 2023
January, 2024

Design Sessions

January, 2024
February, 2024

Remembering one year Earthquake | TV scenes

February, 2024
March, 2024

Definitive Design, BAU Business fiar & Climate Contest TU Delft, Network events Meeting our financial goal!

March, 2024
April, 2024

Izmir & meetings with ACIL & AIA | Conference Ali Hocek

April, 2024
May, 2024

Meetings with our first partners: Derix, Rothoblaas, and Vitra. Turkiye Reconstruction Event, Organised by the Dutch Ambassy

May, 2024
June, 2024

Trip to London: meeting Bureau Happold, Foster and Partners

Our teacher Job arranged an informal business tour for extreme alumni in London. During this trip we had introductions at Bureau Happold, Foster and Partners and a presentation by Mehmet Kalyoncu about the reconstruction of Hatay and Ukraine after disaster, and how these firms are involved with the recovery process.
June, 2024
July, 2024

Summer design sessions with the whole team

After a very busy period for many of our team members, we organized a couple of design sessions to get back on track to achieve our goals.
July, 2024
August, 2024

Arranging legal papers, transportation, and finances.

Our team consists of many different people with various backgrounds, while most of us are architects and our main aim is to provide people homes, we also need to arrange other aspects of the building process. We keep learning by talking to professionals who are experienced. This month, in preparation for our third field trip, we dove deeper into the legal permits and transportation of our prototype.
August, 2024
September, 2024

Fieldtrip #3 | Hatay

During this very productive week we spend time with the family for who we will build our first prototype. We talked to them about their previous house, their daily routines in the village and explained our goals and designs. Next to that we had meetings with the municipality, local construction engineers and logistic companies. We visited Antakya, and met with different associations working for the recovery of Hatay and its people.
September, 2024
October, 2024

Finalising Partners and introducing them: mentional all partners

October, 2024
November, 2024

Definitive Design: final design

November, 2024
December, 2024

Building the Core Unit | Planning towards the building process of the CORE Unit.

This month the team is focussing on working and completing all the work to make sure that the design is completed, the planning is made, the materials are ordered and that we are on track to be able to build the prototype in February.
December, 2024

Follow our next steps towards the building of the prototype which will be completed in April 2025

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Phase 3 | The Construction

As the Architectural Recovery Team, we understand that finding suitable housing is crucial. That is why we believe in working hand in hand with the community to identify the best solutions for their needs. That is why, based on the outcomes of the tests and research made before, during and after the prototype is completed, we hope to improve this prototype and scale up the project to reach more families in need in Hatay, Türkiye. The prototype, will be improved, and used as an example for upcoming sites. The houses will be built in collaboration with local construction firms and builders. The prototype can be implemented in the same village, but also in other villages surrounding Antakya, and Samadağ in Hatay.